How many times have you found some great blogs, bookmarked them and had every intention of going back to the site 'one of these days'...only to never end up getting back to it? It happens to me all the time. I've said it over and over (and I'll keep saying it!) - man I wish they had an email list (mailing list) I could sign up for. Had those sites had a mailing list, I could have opted-in and be reminded of them when they sent an email - and go back to their site to consume the great content I tried to remember to go back to. Keep this in mind - for me and the vast majority of people that stumble across your blog and think we want to re-visit the site some day, will never make it back. And that's not very promising if you want to grow a loyal following/readership.

This is why it's so important to have an email list and get them on it! There are many different email marketing software options to choose from (Mad Mimi, MailChimp, Get Response, just to name a few) but I have used (since 2007) and always recommend Aweber.

Once you have people on your email list you can stay in front of them (in other words they won't forget you....as long as you email on a regular basis but that's a different post in itself) and get them back to your site. When you write a blog post, share a bit of it in an email and invite them to click through to go read the entire post on your site.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Share some of your social media posts and profiles with your list and invite them to connect with you there. This is another way to help you grow your reach, build your relationship with your community and interact with them personally.

As you begin to build relationship with your community and mail regularly, they'll get to know you better. This leads to them knowing, liking and trusting you. Once you've built that know, like and trust factor you can make offers to them (either your own products/services or affiliate offers) and they'll be more likely to take you up on those recommendations.

I've had several people ask me about how they can monetize a blog post. While it can be done (product/service recommendations, product reviews, affiliate offers, etc.) While I'm not against that and do encourage it sometimes, I always tell people the best way to do this (earn money blogging) is by building that list and making offers to them. You can do it ethically and without spamming people or sounding like a used car salesman. Share relevant, helpful information and then invite them to learn more or implement (something you shared - a tip or strategy) it with a product you're recommending.

Let’s recap why it’s so important to your blogging success that you focus on building an email list first.

It allows you to bring readers back to your blog whenever you’re publishing a new post.

It allows you to grow your social media reach by inviting readers to connect with you on social media.

It allows you (by staying in touch regularly) to build a relationship with your audience.

It allows you to make offers for products and services and make some money from your blog posts and emails.